Application InformationApplications are being accepted electronically:
Email your cover letter, Bio or CV and ten-page sample to Gary Winter at gw3@nyu.edu. If you do not receive a confirmation within 48 hours that we received your application, please email again.

Be sure to specify which workshop(s) you would like to attend, and
mention if you have attended a Pataphysics Workshop in the past. The
Pataphysics Workshops for Playwrights are produced at cost by The Flea
Theater. A limited number of scholarships will be awarded based on need
and merit. If you want to apply for a need-based scholarship, please do
so under a separate letter. If you are applying to more than one
workshop, one application will suffice. Please list your preferences.
Thank you!

About PataphysicsNew Work and New Ways of WorkingThe Pataphysics Playwriting Workshops at The Flea Theater are
intimate, four-session intensives for new work and new ways of working.
Named for Alfred Jarry’s science of imaginary solutions, the workshops
are a gymnasium for the writing brain—curious, particular, and rigorous.
Students enter with blank sheets of paper, and leave with pages of
notes, fragments, scenes, even entire plays unlike anything they would
have written on their own.

Led by Master PlaywrightsThe Pataphysics workshops are led by master playwrights who are
known not only for a distinct and groundbreaking body of work, but also
for their ability as teachers. Each workshop, led by a master playwright
pursuing his or her own train of thought, is geared to generate new
material and new ideas through writing experiments, readings, and
interesting talk. Master playwrights have included: Lee Breuer, Erik
Ehn, Karen Finley, Maria Irene Fornes, Jeff Jones, Eduardo Machado,
Chuck Mee, Paula Vogel, and Mac Wellman.

Workshop StructureThe workshops are structured around the idea that whatever is most
immediately interesting to a teacher will make for the most engaging
class. They’re an opportunity for writers, emerging and experienced, to
challenge their own assumptions using strange muscles and surprising
parts of the brain.

Each workshop meets four times over two consecutive weekends at The
Flea. Class size is limited to thirteen and admission is by application.
The Flea Theater runs these workshops at cost. Grants from The Flea
Theater and private donations provide a limited number of scholarships
for those who would not otherwise be able to attend.

“Pataphysics is quite simply the best class I’ve ever taught. Why?
Because everyone in the room knows why they’re there and comes highly
motivated. That cuts through the bull. It lets us work as peers.”

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Longform.org: [David Wain] of MTV’s The State on a peculiar brand
of stardom. “Often people would be like, I’m such a big fan of your
work. I want to have a career like yours. And
I’m like, great, can you buy me a slice of pizza?”

DW: Every writing partnership is different, but ours
is very much us both just sitting there together at the screen and
doing it. We very rarely write by ourselves.BLVR: Who types?DW: I type—only because Ken is not a very fast
typer. Most of it is over Skype. Mostly we’re on Skype, screen-sharing,
so we’re both looking at the same screen, and we’re listening to each
other’s voice. That’s the way we’ve written the majority of our work
together.